Shark Tale (2004)

B
SDG

In 1998, DreamWorks animation and
Disney-distributed Pixar released competing movies set in an
anthill, both centered on a misfit ant with a special
relationship with the ant princess (Antz and A Bug’s
Life).

Now, a year after the triumph of Pixar’s Finding Nemo, a fish story with
a trio of sharks who’ve sworn off eating fish and a puffer fish
who inflates with stress, comes DreamWorks’ Shark Tale,
another fish story with a vegetarian shark and a puffer fish who
inflates with stress. Given the production times these films
require, Shark Tale was probably in production before
Finding Nemo hit theaters. You don’t suppose anyone could
be peeking, do you?

Moral/Spiritual Value

Age Appropriateness

MPAA Rating

Caveat Spectator

Incidentally, DreamWorks’s Shrek and Shrek
2 were based on childhood fairy tales, roughly
corresponding to Pixar’s Toy
Story and Toy Story
2, which were about childhood playthings. This makes
Monsters, Inc. the only
Pixar film to date with no DreamWorks parallel (though November
will see a second, The Incredibles).

In my review of Shrek 2, I wrote that "If Pixar’s
Toy Story movies connect with the child in all of us,
DreamWorks’ Shrek pictures are aimed squarely at our inner
adolescent." The same holds true of the rival fish stories,
which, vegetarian sharks aside, couldn’t be more different.

Along with its DreamWorks CGI predecessors, Shark Tale
is more absurdist and satirical, as well as cruder and more
risqué, than the Pixar films. It’s also got less heart. In
fact, with the possible exception of A Bug’s Life, any
film in the Pixar oeuvre is easily superior to any film in
the DreamWorks lineup.

But Shark Tale, while it’s no Finding Nemo (and
isn’t trying to be), is the wackiest, most energetic, and
possibly most entertaining effort to date from DreamWorks’ CGI
animators. I enjoyed it more than either of the Shrek
flicks, which are entertaining enough, if in my book somewhat
overrated.

Where the Shrek films began with a fairy-tale story and
then festooned it with modern sensibilities and
anachronism-rooted gags, Shark Tale does the opposite: It
begins with familiar movie settings, characters, and situations
and gives them an undersea twist. Where Finding Nemo was
an anthropomorphic fish story, Shark Tale is a thinly
fishified people story.

The result is a constant stream of fish puns, sight gags,
homages, and the like. The story is set in a coral-reef West
Side, where fish eat Kelpy Kremes, drink Coral Cola, get their
news from Katie Current (Katie Couric), and shop at the Gup. And
when Oscar (Will Smith), a young street fish too preoccupied with
things and money he doesn’t have to notice how fond of him a
spunky co-worker (Renée Zellweger) at the local whale wash
is, gets in trouble with a mob boss (Robert DeNiro) over borrowed
money, of course the moneylenders are sharks. (Like all
mobsters, they’re also Italian — and Catholic, judging from a
fleeting "In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti"
heard during a funeral.)

Needless to say, before all is said and done, Oscar will come
to realize that you don’t need money to be someone. Shark
Tale also touches on such themes as telling the truth, being
true to one’s friends and not getting caught up in artificial
popularity or false friends, the dangers of gambling and
get-rich-quick schemes, and taking pride in oneself and one’s
roots.

On the other hand, while the film avoids Shrek 2-style
cross-dressing jokes, adults may not appreciate (though kids
won’t notice) themes involving a sissy shark who at one point
"dresses" like a dolphin as a disguise, to his macho father’s
chagrin.

Other potential concerns for younger viewers include hip-hop
milieu of the heavily utilized soundtrack, Angelina Jolie’s
bad-girl picean temptress (think of Who Framed Roger
Rabbit?’s sultry Jessica Rabbit), a bit of crude or
suggestive humor, and a particularly violent snatch of dialogue
("May his stinking, maggot-covered corpse rot in the fiery depths
of hell").

For ’tweens and up, though, Shark Tale is a fun ride,
thanks to its zippy storytelling, zingy dialogue, and energetic
vocal performances. Smith’s charisma anchors the picture as Eddie
Murphy’s wit did the Shrek films, and DeNiro is funnier
than he’s been in ages. Zellweger is appealing as always, and
Martin Scorsese has an entertaining cameo as a bottom-feeding
puffer fish.

The animation is colorful and flashy, though it’s here that
Shark Tale most obviously contrasts unfavorably to the
visually stunning Finding Nemo. Incidentally, what kind of
fish is Oscar? Despite his name, he doesn’t look like an oscar.
Kind of like how Marlin wasn’t a marlin. You don’t suppose anyone
could be peeking?